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Two updates in one day? Yepyep, that's because I finished watching the Haunting Ground hard playthrough by Louischou (who is a marvelous player by the way and deserves every ounce of praise he's received!) If you are unfamiliar with the game it's survival horror in the vein of Clocktower made by Capcom. It has some systemic and thematic similarities to Clocktower 3 without being as campy. I haven't played either game but Haunting Ground definitely perks my interest in a way Clocktower 3 fails to.
Here's a summary of the plot of both games. IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY STORY SPOILERS JUST SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH. Sorry for shouting but have to make that nice and bold. The summary goes as thus: creepy magic-using old dude wants to consume/merge with nubile young female relative in order to achieve immortality. Along the way you have to face each subordinate killer one at a time until you can figure out how to defeat them. Pedophilia and mysogyny abound.
The nice thing about Haunting Ground is that you have your trusty canine companion Hewie to help you out. He can sniff out hidden items and injure your attackers but first you have to build trust with him so that he obeys your commands.
Now anyone who has played Clocktower 3 understands how frustrating the panic meter is. It fills so quickly in that game that Alissa practically panics at the first sight of anything supernatural. I can understand her fear at the beginning of the game but it gets old quickly. It does nothing to reflect how humans build up a tolerance against fear. To reduce your fear level you must hide and shake your pursuer or consume Lavender Water - a preciously rare item. If Alissa panics when a stalker is near the chance to flee is almost nil. Fear increases as long as a stalker is nearby even if she's already hiding and if she panics she'll bolt from her hiding place.
Haunting Ground also has a panic meter but it is invisible. There is no UI while walking around at all. Fiona's state of mind is reflected by a change in color tone to the screen. As her fear increases color drains away, enemy movements seem erratic and jerky, and when panic finally sets in everything is grayscale. It takes awhile to panic although the game still relies on a linear fear-increases-over-time element rather then actually reflecting the state around Fiona. It doesn't matter if her stalker is actively attacking or being chewed on by Hewie, fear still gradually rises although to it's credit more fear is accumulated by being attacked.
Fear is diminished by using certain items, surviving through panic mode, or shaking off the stalker by hiding or beating the crap out of them. Hiding is always an uncertain thing as Fiona might be discovered. Going back to the original Clocktower we find that Bobby has this same property of evil cleverness (his twin Dan wouldn't be so bright in the sequel). This video showing hiding places in Clocktower explains this better then my words can.
There will be more tomorrow about the relationships between these games
Here's a summary of the plot of both games. IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY STORY SPOILERS JUST SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH. Sorry for shouting but have to make that nice and bold. The summary goes as thus: creepy magic-using old dude wants to consume/merge with nubile young female relative in order to achieve immortality. Along the way you have to face each subordinate killer one at a time until you can figure out how to defeat them. Pedophilia and mysogyny abound.
The nice thing about Haunting Ground is that you have your trusty canine companion Hewie to help you out. He can sniff out hidden items and injure your attackers but first you have to build trust with him so that he obeys your commands.
Now anyone who has played Clocktower 3 understands how frustrating the panic meter is. It fills so quickly in that game that Alissa practically panics at the first sight of anything supernatural. I can understand her fear at the beginning of the game but it gets old quickly. It does nothing to reflect how humans build up a tolerance against fear. To reduce your fear level you must hide and shake your pursuer or consume Lavender Water - a preciously rare item. If Alissa panics when a stalker is near the chance to flee is almost nil. Fear increases as long as a stalker is nearby even if she's already hiding and if she panics she'll bolt from her hiding place.
Haunting Ground also has a panic meter but it is invisible. There is no UI while walking around at all. Fiona's state of mind is reflected by a change in color tone to the screen. As her fear increases color drains away, enemy movements seem erratic and jerky, and when panic finally sets in everything is grayscale. It takes awhile to panic although the game still relies on a linear fear-increases-over-time element rather then actually reflecting the state around Fiona. It doesn't matter if her stalker is actively attacking or being chewed on by Hewie, fear still gradually rises although to it's credit more fear is accumulated by being attacked.
Fear is diminished by using certain items, surviving through panic mode, or shaking off the stalker by hiding or beating the crap out of them. Hiding is always an uncertain thing as Fiona might be discovered. Going back to the original Clocktower we find that Bobby has this same property of evil cleverness (his twin Dan wouldn't be so bright in the sequel). This video showing hiding places in Clocktower explains this better then my words can.
There will be more tomorrow about the relationships between these games
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